Nutritional Restriction Vs. Optimization & The Importance of Metabolic Flexibility w/Stan Efferding

One of the biggest issues in the nutrition conversation is that people are misinformed about what helps and what hurts their bodies. Why is it dangerous for us to be too restrictive in what we eat? How can we avoid thyroid deficiencies? Why is it so important to dial-in our sleep? On this episode, I’m honored to be joined by professional bodybuilder and Vertical Diet founder, Stan Efferding, who talks about the health issues many mainstream diets cause and how his diet rectifies them.

Optimization is the collaboration between sleep, hydration, nutrition, and training; but sleep is the mothership. -Stan Efferding  

 

Three Takeaways

• Many diets that women adopt are terrible for their biological systems. By only eating egg whites, you diminish biotin. If you cut out red meat, you lose iron. If you limit dairy, you diminish calcium.
• You have to be able to fuel your body relative to its energy demands, not just focusing on macronutrients.
• When you take salt out of your diet and then sweat out the salt you have in your body, you create iodine deficiency.

At the start of the show, Stan talked about how he got started and the biggest problem he sees with a lot of people when it comes to nutrition and weight loss: being misinformed and looking for shortcuts. Next, we talked about some of the health issues women face when they restrict their diets, and the problem with taking salt out of your diet. Stan also shared how his diet helps athletes eat based on their body’s needs.

 

We also discussed:

• How lack of sleep affects all biological processes
• The two key factors that are necessary in weight loss
• Why diets shouldn’t be too restrictive

The hard truth about staying healthy is that the basics like sleep, hydration, and nutrition are necessary but boring. As a result, people jump onto the more exciting elements like performance enhancing drugs and trendy diet programs which end up doing more harm than good. To be optimized, you have to fuel the body to meet its energy demands and very often that means being flexible rather than restrictive. Don’t just focus on macronutrients, because micronutrients are also key. If you can be disciplined and consistent with the right kind of nutrition, you will truly be healthy— not just healthy-looking on the surface.

 

Guest Bio-

Stan Efferding is an IFBB Professional bodybuilder, a World Record Holding Powerlifter and founder of the Vertical Diet. He is one of only 10 men in the world to ever total over 2,300 pounds raw in competition. Stan holds the title as the World’s Strongest Bodybuilder.

Stan studied Exercise Science at the University of Oregon and has been training high school, Collegiate, and Professional athletes for over 25 years.Stan conducts seminars all over the country for various sports and nutrition and training techniques. He has appeared in many magazines and writes for Muscular Development, Flex Magazine and Power Magazine.Stan is also a successful Entrepreneur having built three different start-up businesses into multi-million dollar companies. Go to https://stanefferding.com/ for more information.